Kings 109, Suns 95: Game Recap

I had the privilege of attending the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns preseason game as a media member yesterday.  Due to the game not being televised, a lot of fans can't get a good idea of how their players performed other than from the Box Score.  My Kings-centric recap can be found here on Sactown Royalty, detailing how they performed in the game and how each player was.

As a courtesy to all the great Phoenix Suns fans out there and at the suggestion of Alex Laugan from Bright Side of the Sun, I'll try to provide a recap of how Phoenix and their players did last night, since there was no way to watch the game other than by being there.  More after the jump.

The Suns started the game beautifully, thanks to the masterful direction of the one and only Steve Nash.  It was clear that, unlike the Kings, who are bringing in a lot of new and young players, this team had a lot of experience with each other and in the league in general.  The floor spacing and penetration was beautiful to watch, and Hedo Turkoglu helped a lot in that regard.  He wasn't very effective shooting-wise (although a few of his five shots just barely missed) but he did a great job at finding the open man, and although he only had three assists, he had a few more hockey assists (passes that lead to the pass that is credited as the assist).

Defensively, the Suns were way outmatched against the Kings big men.  Robin Lopez was the only one that had any luck guarding a Kings big man individually, and he actually did a pretty good job too, without fouling more importantly.  But the other Suns forwards could not handle DeMarcus Cousins or Jason Thompson and were forced to double a lot.

The Suns became a LOT sloppier once Nash left the game, with everyone making plenty of stupid mistakes, especially Dragic, who had his moments taking it inside, but had a few careless errors as well as loose dribbles that Kings guards were able to pick off.

Robin Lopez impressed me the most of any Phoenix player, mostly because of how the Suns went to him early and often offensively.  He showed a couple nice moves to the hoop and around the basket, and also showed a nice 10-15 foot jumper too.  I have a feeling he will be featured a lot more this year.  His rebounding still needs a lot of work though, only grabbing six (which led the Suns), despite playing a team leading 31 minutes.

Jason Richardson was the most effective Sun, just torching the Kings on possession after possession.  He cooled off later but he was just devastating early.  He was active on defense too, disrupting a few passes and shots, and just being everywhere really.

Steve Nash and Grant Hill both only played for the first six minutes a game, and its no wonder that they have the highest +/- of the team from when they were in the game.  Hill spent the entirety of his 6 minutes guarding Tyreke (and doing a good job of it too) and Nash was being Nash.  If this were a regular season game and these two had been playing the whole time, I think this game might have gone a bit differently (although the Suns still wouldn't have had an answer for the Kings bigs)

Goran Dragic was a pesky guy on defense, stymieing Pooh Jeter for a while, and taking advantage of the size mismatch on offense, but he also was a bit out of control at times and his outside shot was not falling at all.  Hopefully this is just rust, and I still think he's one of the better backup point guards in the league.

Jared Dudley was very active and efficient.  He did a good job at creating his own offense, something I hadn't thought he could do before, as well as just being a general pest on defense and the glass.  Dudley should have a bigger role for Phoenix this year.

Josh Childress was stroking his outside shot in pre-game warmups, but I don't recall him taking one jumper during the game.  All his points came at or around the basket, after he beat whomever was guarding him (I know Omri was supposed to be guarding him on one of those possessions).   His attacking the basket made him almost like a poor-mans Tyreke, and he was able to set up some teammates on drive and kicks.

Dwayne Jones was wholly unimpressive.  Upon entering the game he got two quick fouls, and both his defense and offense were atrocious.  He threw a couple elbows at Cousins too, but luckily none of them landed or Jones might not have survived and Cousins might not have to feed for a week.

Chucky Atkins did a solid job running the point when he was in the game, always looking to pass first other than the two occasions where he was wide open.  He's a veteran, and acted like it.

Matt Janning isn't listed on the Yahoo! Box Score for some reason as of the time I'm writing this, but he had a couple nice moments shooting the ball too.  He has a sweet stroke, but not much else going for him.

Earl Clark looked completely lost on both ends of the court.  It seemed to me like he was trying to do way too much, and he got scored on quite a bit.

Another player who looked out of control at times was Hakim Warrick.  Warrick displayed a very smooth mid-range jumper, but when he took it inside it was a different matter altogether.  He got to the line a couple times off of some silly touch fouls, but the rest of his trips inside weren't good.  His defense was also worrisome, as he could not handle players posting him up.  Even Donté Greene managed to score on him in a post up situation.

If you have any more questions about the game feel free to ask in the comments below.